XGM - Diadochi Preview - New Combat System

**RedFox** · June 09, 2007, 05:06 AM

Over the last few days i've started designing a completely new combat system, where the unit stats solely depend on their unit class, equipment and with some historical tweaks added.

First of all, it all begins with a simple unit status grouping:

n00b - Morale 2-4
Levy/Skirmish - Morale 7
Regular - Morale 10
Good - Morale 12
Very Good - Morale 14
Elite - Morale 16

Each unit's defense skill depends on their status group (except a few selected ones). So if they are Regular infantry, like for example Hastati, their defense skill is 10, but this doesn't do the trick.
Now we need:

Armour:
cloth+helm - 1
semi armoured - 3/4
leather/linothorax - 6/7
chainmail - 8
cuirass - 9
specially covered - 10
all around covered - 12

Shield:
pelte - 2
small round - 3
phalange - 4
small aspis - 5
scutum - 5
thureos - 5
hoplon - 6

This would give a unit of Elite pikemen the stats of: 9, 16, 4 = 29
It means that at front they are pretty hard to kill, but once you get behind them, the real slaughter can begin.

For the attack though, a simple formula seemed to work out pretty nicely.

Attack = (weapon*skill)/6
skill would be the defense skill, so it's a really easy way to set out the initial unit boundaries, though the final stats will be tweaked as seen fit, had to run at least 15 tests before finally confirming Asthetairoi and Praetorian cohort's stats. The rest was just degrading their stats a little bit depending on the unit class and it's armour.

By the way, the weapon stats are:

Dagger - 2
Sword - 4
Gladius - 5
Longsword - 5
Spear - 6 (remember it gets spear attr and 0.64 lethality)
Sickle - 4 (this one gets AP, so it's pretty deadly)
Sarissa - 5 (also gets handicapped lethality, so it works quite fine)

Missiles are calculated a bit differently, but here's what I know for sure.
Pilum - 11/12
Javelin - 12
Arrow - 14

Battles don't seem to last longer with this, though flanking moves are extremely deadly, so once your Legions surround that Elite pike unit, it's pretty much history.
So in the end it will rely on how well you guard your flanks

**Locky** · June 09, 2007, 05:46 AM

Looks good redfox. I still seriously consider giving Kataprakotroi ubder armour level of 40, would reflect them.

**RedFox** · June 09, 2007, 06:10 AM

Well, wholly covered Armour is 12, so I figure they'll get that.

**Locky** · June 09, 2007, 06:36 AM

What about the flying dragons for my spartans?

**RedFox** · June 09, 2007, 07:24 AM

Yeah, right.

**Locky** · June 09, 2007, 07:35 AM

That didn't sound like sarcasm if i didn't know any better

**Zarax** · June 23, 2007, 07:46 AM

Isn't arrow a bit too high? What about sling bullets?

**RedFox** · June 23, 2007, 03:30 PM

Sorry, that stuff is a little bit outdated...
Arrows 10-12, crappy ones get 10, regular is 11 and elite is 12.
Slingers 9, elite is 10/11
Javelins, regular is 11, really really elite ones get up to 13/14
Pilum is the same.

That stuff only gave very basic unit stats, later I still had to update and balance them out. I can PM the Diadochi EDU.txt if you are interested, though I figure the whole mod would suit a little bit better...

**Locky** · June 24, 2007, 02:42 AM

Why not give slings AP attribute? A sling could shatter a shield with a well placed shot.

**RedFox** · June 24, 2007, 02:21 PM

Ugh, I hate when people suggest things that I just forgot to post earlier... yes, all slings have AP.

Also, lethalities:

sword 0.77
blunt 0.66/0.77
spear 0.55
pike 0.4
missile 0.9
cavalry lance 0.77

This should slow down the combat a little bit, though it won't work if you have cavalry and the ability to flank. Flanking really is the keyword for this combat system. Head on you'll have the same class elite units slug it out for ages (elites wreck havoc when against weaker infantry...), but once you surround an unit, it's toast. Even worse is if you charge the enemy flank with cavalry... god I so loved to see Principe fly like piggies.

**Locky** · June 25, 2007, 03:58 AM

Originally Posted by RedFox

Ugh, I hate when people suggest things that I just forgot to post earlier... yes, all slings have AP.

Also, lethalities:

sword 0.77
blunt 0.66/0.77
spear 0.55
pike 0.4
missile 0.9
cavalry lance 0.77

This should slow down the combat a little bit, though it won't work if you have cavalry and the ability to flank. Flanking really is the keyword for this combat system. Head on you'll have the same class elite units slug it out for ages (elites wreck havoc when against weaker infantry...), but once you surround an unit, it's toast. Even worse is if you charge the enemy flank with cavalry... god I so loved to see Principe fly like piggies.

lol, sorry. Anywy it looks good.

**Kylan271** · July 02, 2009, 11:19 AM

Perhaps you should consider helm-open & closed and greaves as armour add ons also? I was trying to work on armour break down like yours,I think though 18 is highest-cataphracts,hmm lamellar armour? Not sure on the shieled ratings though,all I see is 2-5..RTW vanilla that is.

**RedFox** · July 02, 2009, 11:29 AM

This thread is quite old and most of the things discussed here don't apply any longer. The defense stats are much higher now, so are the attack stats. Lets not dig up threads (2 years old) like this again, k?